Improvement in hydrants



UNITED STATEs PATENT @Errea HARVEY H. CLOVER, (DECEASED,) OF CINCINNATI, OHIO; CHARLES S. CLOVER, ADMINISTRATOR, OF BAY CITY, MICHIGAN.

IMPROVEMENT IN HYDRANTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 162,351, dated April 20, 1875; application filed l August 10, 1874.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HARVEY H. CLOVER, of the city of Cincinnati and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Hydrants, of which the following is a specification:

My invention is primarily divisible into two parts. The object of the first part of my invention is to prevent the water from freezing in the hydrant, and also to provide a device for preventing any injury to the same by the sudden checking ofthe iow of water through it. This object is eected by so constructing the hydrant that, after the flow of water from it has been stopped, the water remaining in the discharge-pipe of the same shall be automatically drawn therefrom into a receptacle provided therefor. The main features of this new construction consist in a receptacle for the retention of air and the reception of water, arranged in a new connection with a new combination of enlarged and contracted pipes. The agency by which the water is withdrawn from the dischargepipe of the hydrant, after the ilow of water therefrom has been stopped, is the power of a vacuum. The object of the second part of my invention is to prevent waste of wat-er. To effect this I employ a device which automatically cuts oft' the supply of water to the hydrant whenever no more water is wanted. This device consists of a iexible diaphragmic valve, so arranged that pressure exert-ed upon a lever or treadle by the operator, through intermediate devices, opens the valve, and when the operator withdraws his pressure the valve will, by means of a spring, close and stop the ilow of water.

In the accompanying drawing, the gure represents a vertical middle section of a hydrant embodying my improvements, and taken transversely to the inletpipe. A designates the inlet-pipe, which supplies the hydrant with water from the main or reservoir. After entering the chamber B, designed to tirst receive the water from the inlet-pipe, the latter descends vertically, and terminates in -a iiatshouldered ring, a, against which presses the face of the flexible diaphragmic valve C. The

latter is here preferably of a diameter exceeding that of the chamber B, and its edge is placed under the lower edge of the Wall of this chamber. The ring b is secured to the water-chamber by any of the usual methods, as by bolts, screws, 85o. A piece of packing, e, of any suitable material, of the same diameter as the spring, is placed against the latter, andV between it and the mouth of the inletpipe, and is preferably secured in the same way as the valve. A disk, l), of sufficient size to properly raise the diaphragmic valve against the mouth of the inlet-pipe, so that the packing of the valve will at once firmly impinge against every part ot' the edge of the said mouth, is placed under the valve, and rests upon a rounded stub or pin, f. The latter is attached to the middle of the lower piece E of the yoke-frame. This yoke-frame is preferably constructed as follows To each end of the cross-piece E is attached a vertical rod, F. These rods slide in guideways g g' projecting from the side of chamber B, and in guideways h h', projecting from the side of vacuum-chamber M. Arms Gr G', attached to the tube H, sliding on the discharge-pipe l, Secure the rods F F in position, each arm being secured to its respective rod by the set-screws m m. The tube H is usually of greater length proportionately to the hydrant than shown in the drawing, and is always sufficient] y long to reach from the hydrant to the surface ot' the ground. Immediately beneath this tube a spiral spring, Q., coiled around the discharge-pipe I serves to keep the frame E F G G elevated, and the diaphragmic valve tightly pressed against the mouth of the inletpipe. Immediatelyabove the terminus of the sliding tube is a collar, J, inclosing the discharge-pipe I, and provided with arms J "5 at the end of the latter is fulcrumed a treadle, K. The fulcrum-point of the latter is, for the sake of compactness, placed on one side of the discharge-tube, and the lever-plate is placed on the other. The lever near its middle touches the top of the tube H. M designates the vacuum-chamber, here placed direct-ly above the water-chamber B, and separated from the latter by the partition n. Chamber IWI is preferably made larger than chamber B. In the center ot' this partition arises an inverted funnel, S, the nozzle T of which is cone-shaped, here being about twice as wide at the bottom as at the top. The exterior ot' this funnel is also eolie-shaped. Around its middle and upper portions extends a second funnel, U, the diameter of whose orifice is about three times as great at the bottom as at the top. The interior of this second funnel U is placed sufficiently above the exterior of the first funnel, to allow of there being a narrow space everywhere around the funnel. This space will, from the varying proportions of the upper and lower funnels, be narrower at the top than at the bottom. The upper funnel u opens directly into the dischargepipe I.

The mode of operation of the hydrant remains to be described.

The operator who wish es to draw water from the hydrant presses down the lever, thus pressing frame E F G G', compressing spring Q, and lowering stud f away from the diaphragmic valve. Thelatter will then yield to the pressure of the water in the inlet-pipe A and permit the water to enter the water-chamber B. After the latter is filled with water the water ascends through the conical nozzle ,l, which, from its shape, causes the movenient of the water to be accelerated through it. The rapid motion sucks the air out of the vacuum-cham ber and causes a vacuum therein. The water passes up through the dischargepipe I, and out of the discharge-orifice of the hydrant. When sufficient water has been drawn the operator relieves the lever K of pressure, whereupon the spring Q raises frame E F G G and stub f, and thus presses the diaphragmic valve C closely against the mouth of the inlet-pipe, thereby cutting off the flow of water from the inlet-pipe into chamber B. The movement of the water through the conical nozzle T is thus checked, and thereupon the vacuum existing in chamber M will cause the water to ilow down through the dischargepipe and into the chamber M, thereby emptying of water all that portion of the dischargepipe which is above the top of the vacuumchamber. The hydrant will thus remain in this condition until water is again drawn therefrom, and this condition is its usual one when water is not being drawn.

It may here be remarked that the vacuumchamber is to be placed so far below the surface of the ground that frost cannot reach it. Then, when the water formerly in the discharge-pipe is drawn into the vacuum-chamber, of course it is safe from the effects of frost, and cannot possibly freeze.

Vhen the operator draws a second time from the hydrant, again pressing the lever, the water ascends, and, passing through the conical orifice T, acquires sufficient velocity to draw the water in the vacuum-chamber, through the nozzle W, into the dischargepipe, leaving a vacuum in the vacuum-chamber. The shape of this nozzle Wis such as to accelerate the velocity of the water passing out through it. When the pressure upon the lever ceases the water in the dischargepipe again flows into the vacuum-chamber. Thus this latter chamber is emptied and filled with fresh water from the discharge-pipe every time the water is drawn from the hydrant. All danger of the water in the vacuum-chamber becoming impure is thereby avoided. By means of the vacuum-chamber and the nozzles T and W the bursting of hydrants and the stoppage of water by the freezing of the water therein is prevented-two very im-U portant desideratums in cities and localities where the mercury in the thermometer often falls below the freezing-point during the winter.

To prevent hydrants from freezing it is quite common to clear the discharge-pipe of the hydrant by allowing the water therein to flow into the ground, thereby wast-ing water and making wet cellars.

My invention prevents this waste and keeps the cellar dry. It is also of great advantage as an air-chamber.

In hydrants when the water has been iowing through the discharge-pipe and is suddenly cut oft', the impetus acquired by the water will cause the same to strike against the closed valve with great force, jar the pipe, and often burst the latter. The employment of chamber M in connection with the nozzles T W obviates this jar and danger, as the flow of water is thereby gradually and easily cheeked.

The method of shutting off the supply of water to the hydrant by means of the diaphragmic valve and its accompanying devices is automatic, sure, and reliable. It relieves the operator from any necessity of closing the valve, and prevents the discharge of more water than he intentionally draws. This improvement is of great value in cities and localities where the supply of water is limited and the saving of the latter becomes a necessity or an advantage.

The diaphragmic valve is also applicable to those styles of hydrants which dispense with the use of a vacuum-chamber or a receivingchamber, B, and is then equally useful in preventing waste of water.

The vacuum-chamber may be used to advantage without the diaphragmic valve C, in which case the inlet-pipe might connect with nozzle T through the intervention of a common valve employed to regulate the supply of water to the hydrant.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination of the inlet-pipe A, flexible diaphragmie valve C, disk D, frame f E F F Gr G H, spring Q, lever K, suitably-fulcrumed water-chamber B, and a dischargepipe, for the purposes mentioned.

2. The vacuum-chamber M, combined with chamber B, nozzles T and W, chamber M, the conical nozzle T, nozzle W, and disohargedischarge-pipe I, substantially as and for the pipe I, substantially as and for the purposes purposes set forth.

mentioned.

3. The combination of the flexible da- HARVEY H' @LOVER phragmio valve G, combined with meohan- In presence ofism whereby it will out off the supply of wa- D. I. KENNEDY,

ter to the hydrant, and the inlet-pipe A, R. J.GARRETTE. 

